


Ricochet Moon

by waldorph



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-31
Updated: 2009-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-07 03:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waldorph/pseuds/waldorph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James Tiberius Kirk has never encountered a situation which he has reacted to without the whole of his being; the man does not understand the very concept of 'restraint.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ricochet Moon

To say he is conflicted is to simplify.

He merely can see that, in the course of their years together, he and Nyota will part ways, and his way will merge with the captain's.

Spock accepts it as fact: the course is logical, given the set of variables he is operating with.

With Nyota he has never had to explain himself. Her mastery of language is aided by her exceptionable ability to understand that language is not only syntax, phonemes and verb placement; it is an extension of culture.

Nyota's grasp of his own culture—of the culture he was raised within and chose to embrace when he scarcely knew that he had made such a decision, as his mother had before him, deciding as she had to live with his father. His father who, to Spock's knowledge, had never once informed his mother that he loved her—makes her logical to be with in the way it was logical for his parents to wed.

Nyota reminds him of his mother in some ways, chiefly in the way she is able to hear what is not said, to see what is not visible.

The Captain (_"Jim_, Spock") possesses rudimentary knowledge of Vulcan culture at best, and is often confused by it; though he is a ruthless defender of Spock and all of his kind, which Spock finds logical but inconvenient, especially during diplomatic missions.

James Tiberius Kirk has never encountered a situation which he has reacted to without the whole of his being; the man does not understand the very concept of "restraint".

Spock read his file while preparing for the hearing after the cadet had somehow corrupted the Kobayashi Maru. A third year Human cadet.

Spock had been intrigued. It would be safe to say that were he Human, he would be impressed.

Then he had been perturbed. James Tiberius Kirk's personnel file was full of psychological tests, of juvenile delinquencies and petty crimes: indicative of a man too big for the place in which he finds himself and forced to find his own entertainment in a way that only he can. The tests warned of recklessness to the point of suicide, an advanced intelligence that had little structure, and warned of a latent ambitious streak. Several psychiatrists had classified him as "rage-filled" and "incapable of disassociating between "self" and "other"." Troubling.

Spock thinks, after having read the file, that perhaps the Academy was negligent in allowing Kirk's future to be mandated by an unlikely and felicitous meeting.

And yet, having met the man and spent time with him, Spock cannot believe that it could have happened any other way. Ironically, such a defiance of logic which could be termed simplistically as "luck", given the man around which the events transpired, could only be considered logical.

However, it was not only that James Tiberius Kirk was a hazard to himself, he also had had an unprecedented effect on Spock.

Spock had not struck another in rage since he was a mere child. He had never struck another in such a rage that he intended to kill until Kirk had stood in his face and flung the death of his mother into it brutally, sneering and damning Spock in the same way as the tormentors of his youth had; then his failing had been that he had not been Vulcan enough. For Kirk, Spock was not Human enough, and it had seemed as though Kirk expected him, Spock, specifically, to be more Human.

It was an unnerving realization.

And while Spock will still admit readily that he does not believe that the captain truly understands that Spock can feel just as strongly as even James Kirk, he thinks that they will get to a point where that may be true. That perhaps they are already approaching that point.

His future counterpoint had smiled warmly when speaking of "Jim"— amused at playing off the man's fervid imagination. Fond.

Spock knows that Nyota is who he is meant to be with now; it is logical, given all data points, quantifiable or no.

But as the captain stops them for an unscheduled visit to the new colony of Vulcan, smiling and walking up to the alternate, older version of himself as though there is nothing unusual about the way that his counterpart smiles faintly, calls him "Jim", Spock cannot help but know that James Kirk is where he will end.

So he watches as the captain grabs two neglected pieces of metal and coaxes Chekov into sliding down a muddy embankment with him on the flimsy scraps of metal—Chekov sitting, and the captain standing and then rolling violently down the rest of the embankment, much to the dismay of Dr. McCoy, who begins fishing in his bag immediately for first aid equipment and muttering darkly under his breath.

Spock turns his head just slightly, just enough to see concern and resignedness and amusement and an echo of heat in his counterpart's eyes.

The other version of himself turns, and smiles wryly at him.

"What can you do?" he asks philosophically before turning back and going into the half-built structure.

"Come on, Spock," the captain entreats, wide smile and truly happy.

Spock has been around Humans long enough to recognize that the amount of time that the captain is truly happy is unusual even among that race: the captain is…joyful. Frequently.

"I don't think so, Captain," Spock replies. Nyota looks over and smiles as the captain pouts, arching a brow at him as though to convey that he is embarrassing their species and himself.

"No one plays with me," the captain complains, and then Mr. Scott arrives and Spock knows that in a few minutes time (Star Time, not New Vulcan time, where the seconds last 0.03 seconds shorter than Standard Star Time) the metal will have engine power, and will be more dangerous and the captain will hurtle towards a serious mishap with his eyes full of laughter and howls of joy echoing behind him.

He thinks perhaps that is what keeps people on the USS Enterprise; what will make the captain into a great captain.

He thinks, also, that someday he will step onto a flying piece of scrap metal just to see what it feels like, because exposure to James T Kirk will change him.

He is not adverse to the idea.

In its own way, that too is logical.


End file.
